Jubilarians: 28 women share Saturday celebration

Sisters who will be honored as jubilarians on Saturday, June 6

Celebrating 75 years as a Sister of St. Joseph of Concordia:
Donata Bissett, Concordia
Redempta Eilert, Concordia
Agnes Bernita Green, Concordia
Jane Guenette, Concordia
Helen Urban, Concordia
Generosa Walker, Concordia

Celebrating 70 years as a Sister of St. Joseph:
Susan Kongs, Concordia

Celebrating 60 years as a Sister of St. Joseph:
Mary Augustine, Salina
Doris Marie Flax, Ellis, Kan.
Margaret Jilka, Concordia
Lucy Schneider, Concordia
Frances Cabrini Wahlmeier, Concordia

Celebrating 50 years as a Sister of St. Joseph:
Marcia Allen, Concordia
Jean Befort, Concordia
Diane Brin, Roma, Ga.
Anna Marie Broxterman, Concordia
Rosemary Farrell, Silver City, N.M.
Faye Huelsmann, Grand Junction, Colo.
Patricia McLennon, Concordia
Nancy Meade, Salina
Shirley Meier, Salina
Donna Otter, Teresina, Piaui, Brazil
Virginia Pearl, Pawnee Rock, Kan.
Philomene Reiland, Grayslake, Ill.
Marilyn Stahl, Wichita, Kan.
Betty Suther, Concordia
Mary Jo Thummel, Concordia

Celebrating 25 years as a Sister of St. Joseph:
Christy Cogil, Concordia

Jubilarians: What was it that made 1959 ‘bands’ different?

The year 1959 was not exceptional, as far as anyone here can remember.

There wasn’t a particular push to recruit for religious vocations. There was nothing on the world stage — or even the smaller Kansas stage — that would make religious orders particularly attractive. There was no high-profile individual who might have attracted the attention of a diverse group of women to make a commitment to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.

And yet that year 25 women were received into the order in ceremonies at the Concordia Motherhouse.

On Saturday, the remaining 15 sisters from the “band” of 1959 will join family and friends to celebrate their 50th year as Sisters of St. Joseph in a special jubilarian Mass, dinner and party at the Motherhouse where they first entered the order. They will join other jubilarians in the celebration — there are six sisters marking their 75th anniversary, one marking her 70th, five with 60 years each and one celebrating her 25th year.

But the women who mark their golden anniversary in 1959 have, as a group, always stood out, in part just because of their number. Two years earlier, in 1957, just nine women were received into the order. In 1958, that number was 15. A year after 1959’s spike there were 19 in the 1960 “band,” while in 1961 there were 16.

“There were a lot of us,” says Sister Shirley Meier with a chuckle. “But I didn’t realize there were that many more.”

As in other years, in 1959 sisters were received into the order at two separate times. In March 1959, 16 women entered — including the current president of the order, Sister Marcia Allen.

“We were a very diverse group,” says Sister Patricia McLennon of her March 1959 band. “There were 16 of us, with a wide age range.”

The oldest was Madonna Readey, who at 48 “seemed very old to us, and very worldly,” Sister Pat recalls, noting that many in the group were just out of high school. There was also a broad range of education and life experience in that band.

That was not the case with the nine women who were received into the order in August 1959. Although they were from different hometowns, they had all just graduated from the sisters’ apostolic high school in Concordia, which they had attended together for four years.

For the March band, their different interests and backgrounds brought them together and made them close. For the August band, their shared interests and similar backgrounds kept them close.

As the years have passed, there was more than just their total number that could draw attention to the bands of 1959. Also worth noting was their shared commitment to the Sisters of St. Joseph and the missions they have taken on over the years. As the 1950s gave way to the massive changes both in the church and society in the ’60s and early ’70s, a remarkably few sisters from the bands of 1959 left the order.

From the original nine in the 1957 band, for example, five — or 55 percent — left the order. Of the 15 in the 1958 band, the number who left was 10, or 66 percent. Of the 1960 band, 13 of the original 19 — or more than 68 percent — left the order. Of the 16 who were received in 1961, 11 — again slightly more than 68 percent — left for the secular world.

But of the 25 women received in 1959, just seven — or 28 percent — left. (Another three are deceased.)

“We came at a time of habits, schedules and obedience,” says Sister Pat. “But we began asking questions, and our superiors were listening to what we were asking.

“We lived the old style,” she adds, “but not for very long. It was long enough to understand and appreciate, and yet not so long that we had a hard time letting go of it.”

When upheaval and rediscovery came in the wake of Vatican II in the mid-1960s, “We had been in long enough to get a solid foundation in the older ways,” explains Sister Jean Befort, “but we were the ones excited about the new possibilities.”

Over the next two decades, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia closed or divested themselves of the schools, hospitals and other institutions they had operated over the years — including St. Joseph Hospital in Concordia (now Cloud County Health Center), St. Mary’s Hospital in Sabetha (now Sabetha Community Hospital), Saint John’s Hospital in Salina (now Salina Regional Health Center) and Marymount College in Salina. The sisters, who now had permission to shed their habits for secular clothing, found themselves refocusing on their order’s original calling, to serve in smaller ways, regardless of the need.

“Our whole lives in (our) community have been about change and transition,” explains Sister Pat. “We were the innovators, and we knew we would be the leaders.”

Today, two of the sisters from the 1959 band — Anna Marie Broxterman and Mary Jo Thummel — serve on the order’s Leadership Council, along with band member Sister Marcia, who is doing a second stint as president. (She served two four-year terms beginning in 1987 and was elected again to the post, which in an earlier era would be called Mother Superior, in 2008.)

“Ours is a group that is constantly looking outward, to see what happens next,” explains Sister Pat.

“Our early years were an interesting time,” adds Sister Anna Marie with a laugh that acknowledges the understatement. “And each year as we have reached outward more and more is even more interesting.”

Two-part program combines ‘stewardship’ and environmental concerns

The gathering Thursday morning at the Sisters of St. Joseph Motherhouse was “not political” and “not just an environmental issue,” said Eileen Horn of Kansas Interfaith Power & Light.

“It’s not even about (former vice president and global climate change guru) Al Gore,” she added, drawing a laugh from the 40 sisters and local clergy gathered for the hourlong discussion.

The point of becoming more energy efficient, using renewal energy resources and focusing on environmental concerns is about “protecting what God created for us” and “stewardship” of the earth, Horn said.

Horn’s discussion was the first of two parts that made up Energy Stewardship Day for the sisters and local clergy. The second part, in the afternoon, was a presentation at the Horizon Wind Energy offices south of Concordia and a tour of some of the 67 wind turbines that make up the Meridian Way operation.

The program was organized by the Justice and Peace Center in Salina, a project of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia through the efforts of Sister Esther Pineda, Sister Judy Stephens and others.

Horn is the director of community outreach for Kansas Interfaith Power and Light, a project of the Land Institute that was created in August 2008 to work with faith communities across the state. Her role is to help congregations with environmental stewardship and sustainable practices through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy.

And her focus is on the practical: Throughout her presentation, she used examples of churches across Kansas that have found environmentally friendly — and inexpensive — solutions for aging buildings and tight budgets.

One congregation, for example, replaced an aging heating and cooling system with a cutting-edge geothermal system. While the new system was slightly more expensive to install, the energy savings will pay it off in about two years.

Another congregation used Advent — “the season of light” — to provide energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs to its members.

Kansas is the most recent of 28 states that are now a part of the national Interfaith Power and Light coalition, and about 20 congregations have signed on to the seven-part “covenant” that commits them to work on environmental issues.

There is no charge for taking part in the programs offered by Kansas Interfaith Power Light, which is funded through private grants, Horn said.

Two pieces of the covenant asks congregations to “engage in an ongoing process of education” about environmental issues” and to “promote renewal energy.”

For the afternoon session Thursday, the group combined those two with a field trip to the wind farm just south of Concordia, on both sides of Highway 81.

Construction on the 67 wind turbines that make up the Meridian Way I and II operations began in February 2008, and the machines came on line as 2009 began. Together they have the capacity to produce 201 megawatts of electricity, or enough to provide power for about 60,000 Kansas homes for a year.

The tower and motor housing together are about 260 feet tall. The blades add another 146 feet, making the entire structure just at 410 feet tall — or about the height of a 30-story building.

Horizon leases about 20,000 acres for the Meridian Way turbines, and according to the company’s Michelle Graham, who led the tour, there are plans under way to double or even triple the wind farm.

“Kansas is No. 3 for states that have wind resources,” she said. (First and second in the “wind capacity” rankings are North Dakota and Texas.) “There’s a reason we’re here.”

The turbines dot the wheat fields both east and west of Highway 81 about five miles south of Concordia, and as sisters and local clergy asked questions about the machines, Graham explained their operation — and some problems that have cropped up with the new technology. On Thursday, many of the turbines were still; they had been shut down because of malfunctioning gear boxes, and Horizon was awaiting replacement parts.

Foundation gives $2,500 for new downtown center

The Community Foundation of Cloud County has given $2,500 in its first-ever grant to a project of the Sisters of St. Joseph, as seed money toward the planned Neighbor to Neighbor Center in downtown Concordia.

Foundation president Bob Steimel presented the check during a “Pre-Construction Party” Thursday afternoon at the South Sixth Street building that will be renovated into a center to provide a wide array of services to women and women with young children.

Steimel and his wife, Lorene, both praised the project as something badly needed for the community as they gave the check to the three Sisters of St. Joseph who have spearheaded the effort — Sisters Pat McLennon, Jean Befort and Ranoma Medina.

The Concordia-based Roman Catholic order purchased the building at 103 E. Sixth St. in late March and will essentially have to gut it, according to the sisters’ facilities administrator, Greg Gallagher, who was also on hand Thursday afternoon.

The extensive cleanup of the century-old two-story structure has already started, and old wood paneling has been torn out. Other interior features, like room partitions and restrooms that are not handicap accessible, will be removed. Gallagher said the renovation will include repairing old water damage throughout the building, and then installing all new plumbing and fixtures, plus new sheetrock, dropped ceilings, carpet and other flooring, lighting and paint. Many of the windows will be replaced as part of the restoration, and the front entrance will be modified to be handicap accessible.

On Thursday, it was hard to tell how much has already been done. The walls were bared down to the studs and torn insulation was hanging from the ceiling in places. Scattered holes opened into unused ductwork, and lighting throughout was exposed.

“But I love that you’re doing this ‘before,’” state Rep. Elaine Bowers, R-Concordia, told Gallagher as he showed her around the building. “It will make the ‘after’ that much more impressive.”

Neighbor to Neighbor, when it opens later this year or early in 2010, will provide a wide array of services for women and for women with young children and be a resource center to help them find other services they need, said McLennon. Services offered will likely include nutrition and parenting classes, workshops on healthy living, personal counseling and information on what help is available through other agencies. The center will also have small facilities to meet what McLennon described as “basic needs” — showers, at least two washers and dryers and a kitchen. Medina noted that services and volunteer opportunities will be added and developed as the need for them is identified.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia Development Office has taken charge of fund-raising for the project, and executive director Martha Bryant was very grateful Thursday for the community foundation’s contribution.

“This mean so much to us, because it means the community is with us,” she said.

Now in just its second year, the Community Foundation of Cloud County has awarded a little more than $95,000 since July 1, 2007.

If you’d like to help support Neighbor to Neighbor or any of the sisters’ other ministries, you can make a donation through a secure server with Amazon Simple Pay, simply by clicking on the Donate button:

• Bishop thanks sisters with Mass, dinner

SALINA — Bishop Paul Coakley extended the diocese’s thanks to women religious at the annual appreciation Mass and luncheon on May 13.


“We give thanks for the fruitfulness of your lives, your ministries and your apostolates. On behalf of this gathering, we thank you for your commitment, dedication, fidelity and consecrated lives,” he told about 70 sisters at Sacred Heart Cathedral, including more than 40 from the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia.

In the Gospel reading for the day from St. John, Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and everyone that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.”


In his homily, Bishop Coakley said, “Our lives and vitality come from our shared connection with that vine.

“Let us reflect on how important it is when we remain united in faith, hope and charity with the Church. It is only by remaining firmly grafted to this vine that our lives and ministries will bear fruit,” he said.

The annual event includes dinner at which the sisters are served by priests from the diocese. In addition to the Sisters of St. Joseph in Concordia, other orders represented were the Sisters of St. Agnes, the Dominican Sisters of Great Bend and two from Mexico City, the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Missionary Sisters of the Eucharistic Heart of Christ the King.

$15,000 will help replace aging windows

The process of making the historic Motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph more energy efficient will get a helping hand from a $15,000 grant just received by the Concordia religious order.

The money from the Washington, D.C.-based Support Our Aging Religious will pay for 47 replacement windows at the 107-year-old building in Concordia. The windows to be replaced this summer are on the north, or front, side of the Motherhouse, which has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973.

Facilities administrator Greg Gallagher said the order has been upgrading windows on the building for some time, and has generally budgeted around $3,000 a year for the improvements. In 2008, for example, Gallagher’s staff replaced 13 windows at a cost of $3,400.

But with literally hundreds of windows on the five story red-brick building, plus its two-story tower and the Stafford Hall addition and a second annex that both extend to the south, the process is expected to take several more years to complete.

The replacement windows will be made of energy-efficient, double-pane glass and will match the appearance of the old windows. As part of the installation, the frames around the windows will be insulated and sealed, further improving energy efficiency, Gallagher said.

The grant was one of 58 totaling $1 million that SOAR awarded this spring. The grants, which range from $2,000 to $25,000, are awarded to religious congregations across the country to help them with essentially life and safety issues in the care of elderly and infirm members of religious orders. In addition to building upgrades like energy-efficient window replacements, grants in 2009 will help orders pay for fire alarms, water treatment and security systems, as well as renovations for handicap accessibility.

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia has about 160 members. Some 40 of those sisters live at the Motherhouse, while another 40 or so live and work in the city of Concordia. The remaining sisters serve missions in more than 20 cities and towns in Kansas, plus others in Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico and Texas. The Sisters of St. Joseph have also supported a mission in Brazil for more than 40 years.

Throughout the United States, there are about 400 Roman Catholic women’s religious orders with nearly 60,000 vowed sisters. There are far fewer religious orders of men in the United States, but bishops, priests and vowed brothers number about 47,000.

SOAR estmates that of those, about 1,900 are elderly or infirm. Since its founding in 1986, SOAR has awarded more than 900 grants totaling $10 million to congregations in 43 states and Puerto Rico. Its funds come from donations and appeals for help across the country. SOAR has a web site at http://www.soar-usa.org.

Sisters invite community to see center before renovation begins

The community will have a chance during the afternoon and evening of Thursday, May 14, to see the “before” of a new social services center planned for downtown Concordia. The “after” will come in a new months, when the building at 103 E. Sixth St. has been renovated into Neighbor to Neighbor, a project of the Sisters of St. Joseph to serve women and their young children.


The sisters are hosting a “pre-construction party” from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday to show plans for the building, which formerly housed Conn’s TV & Appliance, and to explain some of the programs they hope to offer there.

The public is invited, and refreshments will be served.

On hand will be the three women who are drivers behind the project — Sisters Pat McLennon, Jean Befort and Ramona Medina — as well as Greg Gallagher, the facilities administrator for the sisters and the man who will oversee the renovation.

The extensive clean up of the century-old building has already started, and old wood paneling has been removed. Other interior features, like room partitions and restrooms that are not handicap accessible, will be removed, essentially gutting the two-story structure to create the new center. Gallagher said the renovation will include repairing old water damage throughout the building, and then installing new plumbing and fixtures throughout, plus new sheetrock, dropped ceilings, carpet, other flooring, lighting and paint. Many of the windows will be replaced as part of the restoration, and the front entrance will be modified to be handicap accessible.

Neighbor to Neighbor, when it opens later this year or early in 2010, will provide a wide array of services for women and for women with young children and be a resource center to help them find other services they need, said Sister Pat.

Services offered will likely include nutrition and parenting classes, workshops on healthy living, personal counseling and information on what help is available through other agencies. The center will also have small facilities to meet what Sister Pat described as “basic needs” — showers, at least two washers and dryers and a kitchen.

Sister Ramona noted that services and volunteer opportunities will be added and developed as the need for them is identified.

“Our first sisters met the needs of the time,” Medina said of the Sisters of St. Joseph who came to Concordia and founded the order in 1883. “These are the needs of our time — women and their children who may just need a safe place to connect with each other.”

One resource available to meet those needs are the sisters in Concordia themselves.

About 40 retired Sisters of St. Joseph live at the Motherhouse, which is the center of the sisters’ community. “We have retired teachers, counselors, caregivers… And they are excited about the chance to reach out to women in Concordia,” said Sister Jean. “They have a huge amount of experience — and maybe what they can do is read to children or rock babies.”

The two-story light-brick building was purchased at a foreclosure auction in mid March and sale was finalized in April.

In the coming months, the sisters will seek grants and gifts to fund the renovation of the building, which is in good structural condition despite its need for extensive clean-up and remodeling to meet the sisters’ needs.

If you would like to help with this project, please contact the Development Office, 785-243-2113, ext. 1223, or Sister Carmel Garcia (cgarcia@csjkansas.org).

If you’d like to help support Neighbor to Neighbor or any of the sisters’ other ministries, you can make a donation through a secure server with Amazon Simple Pay, simply by clicking on the Donate button:

Last stained-glass window gets protective shield

The maintenance crew for the Sisters of St. Joseph placed a custom-made protective cover over the last of the century-old stained-glass windows in the Motherhouse this morning, but not without a little “custom fitting.”

“With a building like this, there’s always something,” explained maintenance supervisor Renn Allsman with a chuckle. “These windows aren’t standard sizes; they were all built to fit these holes.”

That means the clear glass shield designed to cover the arched window over the main Sacred Heart Chapel door didn’t fit exactly as planned, so a small portion of the wood facing was carefully chiseled away to allow the new glass to fit snugly against the century-old stained glass.

The chapel was built in 1907, on the east end of the then-5-year-old Nazareth Convent and Academy, which is now known more simply as the Motherhouse. The windows — including the 14 that line both sides of the chapel sanctuary itself — were designed and created by The Munich Studio of Chicago. Over the years protective shields have been added to all the other windows, to save them from wind and weather damage. But the arched window above what was the main door to the chapel was apparently overlooked — until now.

Tag-team ministry reassigned to new parishes

EDITOR’S NOTE: Father Jim Hoover and Sister Marilyn Wall have just learned that he has been reassigned to three parishes in Central Kansas, effective July 1. Together they will leave Washington County, where they have served since 2002, and go to the parishes of Wilson, Dorrance and Hollyrood. This profile, researched and written before the new assignment was announced, looks at how their partnership developed and why it fits the critical need for rural parish ministries.

By Sarah Jenkins

Washington County, Kansas, may be the epitome of rural Mid America. Its 900 square miles butt up against an equally rural Nebraska county, and it is populated by 125,000 hogs, nearly 76,000 head of cattle, slightly more than 5,800 people, more veterinarians than medical doctors, and one Catholic priest and one Sister of St. Joseph.

Father Jim Hoover and Sister Marilyn Wall have served what they call “the Catholic community of Washington County” as a team for seven years. There are four active parishes — in the county seat of Washington, as well as the towns of Hanover. Greenleaf and Morrowville — but Sister Marilyn says the 500 Catholic families scattered across the county are a practical lot; they attend whichever of the churches is most convenient at any given moment. There may be someone who catches the 5 p.m. Stations of the Cross at Sacred Heart Church in Greenleaf or the Saturday afternoon Mass at Hanover’s St. John the Baptist Church, but is a member of Washington’s St. Augustine Church.

“They know we’ll be there, wherever they are,” Sister Marilyn explains.

That, in fact, could be the motto of their shared ministry.

This is actually their second stint working together to serve the people of a group of rural parishes.

Father Jim is a native of Junction City, Kan., who was ordained in 1960. He was headed toward becoming a canon lawyer when he discovered his love of ministering one-on-one with people in need. His sister Dorothy, meanwhile, had entered the Sisters of St. Joseph — the order Marilyn Wall entered the same year Father Jim was ordained.

It would be more than 20 years before they met.

Marilyn, a native of Aurora, Ill., spent her first two decades as a sister getting an education — including master’s degrees in both botany (Kansas State University) and social work (St. Louis University) — and teaching at the high school and college levels. Then, in the early 1980s, she returned to Concordia to focus on counseling and directing retreats at the sisters’ Manna House of Prayer. It was during those years she met Father Jim Hoover. It was also during those years she began to feel called to a different type of ministry.

Her good friend Sister Jean Befort was working in a rural parish ministry, Marilyn explains, “and I saw what she did, and I was touched by it — I wanted to be out working among the people.”

In 1987, Father Jim was being assigned to a parish in Beloit, Kan. “And before I took that assignment, I went to (Marilyn) at Manna to ask her to lead me in a directed retreat,” he recalls. “We discovered we had more in common than we had any idea.”

They also discovered a shared vision of working with people in small parishes, and being available for human needs as they arise. They found they shared a core belief in the compassion of Catholicism, and the deep human desire to find and feel faith. Over time, they also developed a vision of working together, to join their separate strengths into one ministry.

Their chance to put that vision into practice came in 1994 when Bishop George Fitzsimons decided to give the partnership a try, in Oberlin, Kan., and two neighboring western Kansas parishes. Father Jim was assigned as the priest while Sister Marilyn served as what was then called a pastoral administrator.
The titles belie their actual responsibilities.

As Father Jim explains in his typically no-nonsense manner, “I do the holy ‘sacramental’ stuff; we share everything else.”

After eight years in western Kansas — and eight years of learning how to make their partnership work to best serve the people in three scattered parishes — they were appointed to Washington County and took on the even greater challenge of four parishes, a Catholic grade school and 500 families strewn across 900 square miles.

Two priests had served the parishes there, but the continuing nationwide shortage of ordained Catholic priests made replacing them impossible. So Father Jim and Sister Marilyn took on the task.

Father Jim, now 75, still does “the sacramental stuff,” including five Masses from Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning.

He starts at his home base at St. John the Baptist in Hanover with a Mass at 5 p.m. Saturday. Then he drives roughly 17 miles — and, depending on the changeable Kansas weather, it can be a very rough 17 miles — to the tiny town of Greenleaf for a 6:30 p.m. Mass at Sacred Heart Church.

Sunday morning starts with a 7:45 Mass at St. Peter & Paul Catholic Church north of Morrowville, some 28 miles from his home. Then it’s back 13 or so miles to Washington for a 9 a.m. Mass at St. Augustine before heading another 15 miles east and north to Hanover again for the 10:30 Mass.

“And that’s if there are no funeral preparations, baptisms, anniversaries or weddings,” Sister Marilyn notes, “and no stopping to talk.”

The nature of their ministry — and the nature of Father Jim — is that he will almost always stop to talk.

For 66-year-old Sister Marilyn, there is sometimes less routine but the same drive to be there, wherever she can reach out to people who may need her.
On a recent spring Friday, she begins her day by driving to Hanover, to help Father Jim give communion to parishioners in a nursing home, and to two more who are homebound.

Then it is back to Washington and the small hospital there, to be of whatever service she can be for a young mother and father grappling to accept God’s will.

The Mexican family has three young children and the mother was pregnant with another daughter. But they had learned the tragic news that the baby had died in the womb, and they arrived at Washington County Hospital where the doctor began inducing labor at 8 a.m.

Marilyn is there, to talk about faith and God and funeral arrangements. She’d found a prayer for blessing a baby and is having it translated into Spanish, and she has with her an inexpensive Christmas ornament of an angel holding an infant.

The baby’s name was to be Azul Celeste — Spanish for Blue Heaven.

By late morning, when it becomes clear that the labor is going to take much longer than hoped for, she leaves to drive a little more than halfway to Hanover to meet Father Jim for dinner.

A key to their shared work, they both say, is keeping in almost constant contact. They talk at least once a day — and more often three or four times a day — to fill each other in on the lives of their parishioners.

“Sometimes we can be like parents of teenagers,” Sister Marilyn says with a laugh. “People will go to him, and if they don’t like what he says, then they come to me to see if I say something different.”

But that doesn’t work with this team, Father Jim notes. “I punt, she catches — even if we haven’t talked about it.”

After dinner — during which they check in with a handful of parishioners who stop by their table at the Pony Express Café — Sister Marilyn returns to the hospital to check in with the nursing staff. There is no progress to report, but she spends a few minutes talking with the young couple and their translator and assures them she will be immediately there whenever they need her.

Then it’s over to St. Augustine’s to pick up books for a service later and to check in on the crew preparing a Lenten fish fry at the church. She trades quips with the members of the Knights of Columbus who are working in the kitchen, and praises the baked beans they will be serving later. Before she leaves, she is surprised by a parishioner who hands her a $500 check, “for your family,” the Sisters of St. Joseph.

After walking across the yard to her home in the rectory, Sister Marilyn checks her voice mail — still no news from the hospital – and spends a few minutes putting together the list of fish dinners that will need to be home-delivered early in the evening.

She’s surprised by a visit from three sisters from Concordia. They had been to Greenleaf to deliver a baby blanket — crocheted and donated by Marilyn, coincidentally — that was purchased a week earlier at a fundraiser at the sisters’ Motherhouse in Concordia and to personally thank another couple who had made a donation to the Catholic order.

Then it is back to the hospital; still no progress, but she checks with the increasingly weary parents to ensure their children were picked up after school.
There’s one more road trip, south to Greenleaf this time, to pray with the dozen or so who show up for a 5 p.m. reading of the Stations of the Cross and communion. It’s a larger crowd than she expected on a Friday afternoon in this simply decorated brick church, and she’s pleased at the turnout. “They love this church,” she says of Sacred Heart and its people.

Back at St. Augustine’s, Sister Marilyn joins the crowd for the fish fry and greets everyone; these are the people who have made her a part of their lives.
Father Jim is there, too. They both ask about recent illnesses and family members and tease about the upcoming Final Four and hot local topics.

In their seven years in Washington County, the two of them have been to countless basketball games, Scouting events, high school plays and grade school concerts. “We aren’t separate from the community,” she explains. “We are part of the community — and the people here notice that.”

After dinner, Sister Marilyn returns to the hospital. The mother’s daylong ordeal is finally over, and Marilyn brings a blessing of the child. The baby’s father reads the prayer Sister Marilyn had translated into Spanish.

“This is where we truly touch people,” Sister Marilyn says. “At weddings, hospitals and funerals — that’s where we become a part of their lives, and they become a part of ours.”

This part of this day, and this part of these lives, is immeasurably painful. But the prayers, the thoughtfulness, the being there are all appreciated; you can see it in the father’s tired eyes.

“I love these people,” Sister Marilyn says, clearly speaking beyond this family to all the families scattered across this rural Kansas landscape. “And I love this place. We are one here. This is the kind of place Father Jim and I were meant to be.”

Sisters gather to honor nurses

It was two days early for a celebration of National Nurses Week, but no one on Monday afternoon seemed to mind beginning the honors a little in advance.

The Sisters of St. Joseph who live in the Concordia Motherhouse gathered for a “nurses party” — complete with party favors, gifts and root beer floats — to recognize the service provided by the 24 members of the nursing staff who work with them every day. Director of Nursing Alfreda Maley also recognized the 12 sisters who are retired from medical professions, six sisters who actively serve the medical needs of fellow sisters who live at the Motherhouse and at Mt. Joseph Senior Village and three members of the Leadership Council who had medical vocations.

The annual party provides an opportunity to recognize the “building blocks” needed to provide medical care, Maley said.

Each nurse and certified nursing assistant received a gift from the sisters. The nursing staff also presented a gift to Maley for her leadership and compassion.

Sisters Shirley Meier and Dorothy Marquez received special recognition for all they do to meet the sisters’ needs, while community administrator Arlys Hubert was singled out for special recognition.

National Nurses Week officially begins May 6 and continues through May 12.

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